Greening the Blockchain
Imagine waking up on a crisp, cool morning in early September 2038 and checking the news. You see a headline that world temperatures have fallen by half a degree Celsius in the past six months, meeting the final benchmark of the Paris Climate Accords. Then you check your online wallet. More good news. The balance is several zeroes bigger than it was the previous night — all because you made the choice to invest in the planet years before!
The proposed financial instrument is a smart climate bond, whose payout would be determined by prevailing global temperatures. Yield and time of maturity could be tied to the goals of the Paris Climate Accords. This market-based capital infusion could fund anything from community block grants to getting more electric cars and trucks on the road sooner, at a lower sticker price.
Climate-based smart contracts are used today for crop insurance. Rainfall datasets from NOAA and other sources allow insurers to automatically settle and pay claims to farmers, via Chainlink’s decentralized oracle technology.
